Soviet Jew Arrested

May 8, 1980

NEW YORK (May. 7)

Leonid Volvovsky, a 38-year old computer scientist and former Moscow Hebrew teacher, was arrested on April 22 on charges of vagrancy, according to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). The arrest was made after the KGB intruded on Volvovsky while visiting a friend in Kishinev. Also arrested were two other Kishinev activists. Both, however, were later released. Held in police custody since the day of arrest, Volvovsky is now undergoing a 30-day interrogation period, on the request of the Kishinev procurator, the NCSJ said.

Last February, Volvovsky lost a civil court case challenging the authorities order to evict him from his Moscow apartment where he lived with his wife, Ludmilla and 11-year-old daughter Kira. He also lost his Moscow residency permit. Volvovsky was then ordered to return to Gorki, where he lived for many years prior to coming to Moscow, the NCSJ reported.

Volvovsky and his family have been trying to emigrate to Israel since 1973. He was repeatedly refused because his research work in computer design was considered classified. According to the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, if found guilty of the charges brought against him, he “will be punished by deprivation of freedom for a term not exceeding two years or by correction tasks for a term of six months to one year.”